Sweet Sounds
author: Chandra Bruce
I recently went to a private show by the Earl Brothers, and they are FANTASTIC!!! These guys could play together in a tightly closed cardboard box and still sound awesome. What a show, and what a wonderful group of gentlemen!! Keep the music playing guys!!
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“The (Renaissance) White Album” – The Earl Brothers
author: Billy Schmidt
8/2/10 (finally)
Of course I had expectations when I first broke the plastic on the Earl Brothers’ new CD, an enigmatic “White Album” from our pals, and immediately some of those expectations were fulfilled… There it was, like a restless spirit rustlin’ through a dry cornfield, Robert Earl’s banjo pickin’, enticing and poignant but easy and steady all the way through this album, completely controlled in the process of distillation. This whole project despite its comfort to the ear, speaks of deepening discipline and vision, and it beckons you to enter a seemingly bygone but starkly present world. And there came a fiddle line in a song the Stanley Brothers could easily have featured, and then along the way other touches harkening back, back… And more banjo and more fiddle and more fabulous writing, just like always. As long as these nice, sociable (Hi Danny; it was a pleasure at Grass Valley), fellows keep doin’ this music it hasn’t been done enough! This ‘un takes a careful listenin’ though – missing is any sort of a dominant mandolin presence; it’s there at moments but mostly at the edges, and the fiddle pushes into a central role like it was always there but we just were never hearin’ it before. I gotta say a full Bluegrass flush (rumor has it a phenomenon in the works) wouldn’t hurt, but with the songs being mostly vocal pieces, hey… And now the Gospel’s come in, with Danny’s delivery of a straight-up message, and for me it’s a really sincere, not slick, and just plain touching venture in that direction! Any sort of Nashvilleitis couldn’t be further away – it’s a kind of gut-driven, direct provision of Christianity that goes way beyond the over-produced stuff leaking out of Bluegrass Music Row these days, and it fits on the Earl Brothers like shoes outta their closets. Really a mature (nod to J, P, G, & R) “White Album!!!!” So, recite after me: “I will buy the Earl Brothers' New CD, the fabulous White Album of 24K Bluegrass… …I will buy ALL the Earl Brothers’ CD’s… …I will try to actually see the Earl Brothers live… …I will give the Earl Brothers’ music to my friends… …I will strive to own all the Earl Brothers’ music… …I will…”
Billy Schmidt - Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Best there is!
author: niamerT
The best bluegrass out there! Sounds like real mountain music, not pop-country with a banjo riff.
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The Earl Brothers
author: Big Hen Music
The Earl Brothers
Self-released big hen music
Like The Steeldrivers, The Earl Brothers present a rare shade of bluegrass. Whereas the Nashville-based Steeldrivers emphasize the hard-lived blues ancestry of bluegrass, San Francisco’s Earl Brothers favour twisted, gothic experiences that peel flesh from bone.
For their fourth album, The Earl Brothers have made striking transitions. The abandonment of the black and grays of their previous releases is apparent; that Robert Earl Davis and his crew have released their own ‘white album’ is significant in more than artwork.
This is a new chapter for the California band.
The dichotomy between the sweetness of bluegrass instrumentation — spectacularly flavoured for the first time with fiddle introduced to the five-piece lineup — and the rough-hewn, hard-scrabble lead vocals and harmonies remains. In adding Tom Lucas’s fiddle, the band has confidently moved toward the bluegrass mainstream using the instrument much the way Bill Monroe did — to emphasize the tempered emotions of a song as the voice simply can’t alone.
Davis’s chosen subject matter hasn’t changed; like a successful novelist, Davis knows that his audience expects certain traits. His protagonists remain rounders, ramblers, and broken-hearted fools fessin’ up to messin’ up with hard women and raw whiskey. The resulting troubles are almost too much to endure — witness tunes like Lightning, Cold and Lonesome and Won’t Be Around Anymore.
Of course, come Sunday morning some reflecting and testifying is required while considering a Walk in the Light singing in the Sweet Bye and Bye.
The Earl Brothers have faithfully released bluegrass recordings containing bright banjo-picking and distinctive vocals from Robert Earl Davis. In Danny Morris, Davis has a guitarist and vocal foil to provide tenor accenting his unconventional singing, while the mandolin of Larry Hughes washes over every song.
The band and this album aren’t for everyone, and I’ve heard people praise and damn the band in equal measure.
Those who favour Dailey & Vincent or IIIrd Tyme Out are advised to look elsewhere — there is nothing polished or contrived about The Earl Brothers. With this album, they have again demonstrated that they are unable to compromise vision or execution.
O Brothers? Undeniably!
Donald Teplyske is a freelance writer who contributes a twice-monthly column on roots music; visit fervorcoulee.wordpress.com for additional reviews.
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